


limbo

by murderplot



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Character Development, End of the World, F/F, Falling In Love, Feelings, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Introspection, Life Partners, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Partners to Lovers, References to Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, lots of em - Freeform, this is a work filled with Emotion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 16:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15998816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murderplot/pseuds/murderplot
Summary: There really wasn't much to the story of Shuuichi Saihara. He was just another of those depressed 18-year-olds who didn't quite know what to do with their lives. But all of that changes one day he wakes up with little to no memory of the previous night and finds out that suddenly, everyone else has disappeared, and he is the last person on earth.





	1. the end

**Author's Note:**

> so this is a comfort fic, vent art, and self indulgent bullshit all at once so maybe uh. don't take it too seriously? also be attentive to the warnings on the tags. theres no character death or anything like that, but there WILL be several mentions of suicidal ideation, depression and child abuse because i just cant write without having at least some referencing to dark themes djdvnbn

**DAY 1, TIME UNKNOWN**

When Shuuichi woke up, he had no idea what was happening.

He opened his eyes slowly. There was no memory of the previous night in his mind. He just felt drowsy, heavy, and downright awful.

His head felt like it was filled up with water. He looked around, trying his best to make out where he was even though his eyesight was terrible at the moment.

Shuuichi noticed he was just in his own room, lying on the bed. He exhaled, releasing a breath he didn’t knew he was holding, and felt calm. At least he was safe…

The fact that he couldn’t remember most of the past night had him uneasy, though. Just what happened? All he recalled was going out with his girlfriend Kaede at the evening, then coming home around 10 pm, and…

That’s right where his memory fades. It’s like he wasn’t even alive from 10 pm to the present time.

Speaking of which, what time was it? He tried grabbing his phone to check, but his arms were pretty much limp. Giving up too quickly, he decided to just take a glance at the window, and considering how much bright light was trying to pass through the curtain’s fabric, he could guess it was around the late morning or early afternoon.

Then he had been asleep for quite a while, he concluded. This was something odd. Normally, Shuuichi would always get up rather early in the morning, even if he didn’t get much sleep in the previous night.

But…he couldn’t really bother to think about this right now. At some point, his brain had started to shut down, and a sudden wave of exhaustion overtook his body.

And he fell asleep once again.

 

**DAY 2, TIME UNKNOWN**

This time, when he woke up, Shuuichi was much more alert.

His body still felt heavy and uncomfortable, but not as limp as some time ago. He could sit up on the bed, and actually stare around his room.

Rubbing his eyes, he noticed it was way darker than the first time he woke up. He probably had slept for a long time again…what got him so tired?

Right after that, Shuuichi noticed that even though he’d been asleep for way longer than usual, there wasn’t his mother barging in his room, yelling at him to wake up even once.

This was what ticked him off about everything. Normally, she would scream at him for the tiniest things. He had just been fast asleep for an entire day or more, why was she so quiet?

Shuuichi decided to go look for her. He walked towards his room’s door. And he noticed it was locked.

Strange. He didn’t recall locking it. Maybe he did so during the period he had no memory of. Luckily, there was a spare key in the nightstand, so he just used that to unlock the door, and left the room.

Going down the stairs, Shuuichi looked around. The lights were still on, which meant his parents, or at least his mother, were still home. They’d always turn off the lights when they left…

However, when he reached the living room, he didn’t see a soul there.

Shuuichi felt something inside him start freezing up, becoming cold with anxiety.

Even if the room was empty, the TV was still on, and there was an opened bag of chips sitting on the couch next to the remote control.

And on the screen, nothing but static.

He gulped. Just where were his parents? He wasn’t exactly…worried about them not being there, it was just that…there was something so blatantly _off_ about this. About all of this.

But he knew he couldn’t give in to his paranoia that quickly. Shuuichi wanted to be a detective, after all, and jumping to conclusions with little to no evidence was something he shouldn’t _ever_ do.

So he grabbed the phone to call his parents. Before reaching any panic-induced conclusions, he had to see if they would at least answer the phone. With shaky hands, Shuuichi dialed his mother’s number…

And he got no response. Not on the first call, nor the second, nor the third or the fifth or the tenth call. Just that one recorded message. No human voice to answer him.

He started to freeze up, but he couldn’t panic just yet. Shuuichi took a deep breath and then released it. Maybe it was a good time to put his detective skills to use.

He hurried to investigate the room. It was obvious that someone had been there at some point. Considering the bag of chips on the couch, it was probably his dad — His mom hated those.

There were still chips there, he hadn’t finished eating. He was probably snacking on them while he watched TV, when he…

_Disappeared?_

No, that couldn’t be it. Humans didn’t just disappear into thin air. Shuuichi was sure there was a logical explanation to all of this. There had to be.

He hurried to his parents room. It was empty and the lights were off, as expected. The bed was messy, like someone had been laying there not too long ago.

On the nightstand, was his parents’ phones, both dead. This time, he actually froze up.

The phones weren’t even charging. Like they were just left there for a long time, and eventually ran out of battery.

_There was something very wrong with all of this._

Shuuichi started considering the possibility that they may have been kidnapped, and while the culprit took them, they may have drugged him. That would explain his memory loss and exhaustion…

But there wasn’t a single sign of this happening through the house. You’d think there would be some minimal sign of struggle if such a thing happened, but there was none.

Shuuichi fell on his knees at the living room, not knowing how to continue his frantic investigation…his chest kept rising and falling with panicked breaths. What the hell happened? What the hell was happening?

Then, it dawned on him.

_“Isn’t it awfully quiet outside, too?”_

The voice in his head whispered, and a chill ran through Shuuichi’s entire body. Truly, he hadn’t heard a single noise coming from the outside since he woke up for the first time. No cars, no people talking, no animals.

Shuuichi gulped. Maybe it would be a good idea to check how everything is outside, he thought. And it made his throat go dry.

Why was he scared?

The wannabe detective took slow steps towards the front door. Alarms wouldn’t stop going off in his head, his intuition screaming at him.

“There’s something wrong” His mind kept telling him. And he prayed he was just being paranoid and stupid. He wanted nothing more than to be wrong right now.

He opened the door shakily.

His eyes were closed at first, but once he finally grew the courage to open them, Shuuichi got an eyeful of something he had never seen before.

A ghost town, dead and silent, right in front of him.

 

**DAY 2, 7 PM**

Shuuichi felt himself die on the inside.

Cars were loosely parked on the street, as if the ones driving them disappeared while doing so. Houses had their lights on, but made no sound.

Shuuichi’s heart dropped to his stomach. It felt like the ground was falling under his feet.

He couldn’t believe his own eyes. He just couldn’t. None of this made any sense.

Somewhere far away, he heard a dog’s bark. If this was any other situation, he’d look in its direction. But he couldn’t. He just felt dead.

He watched dumbly as a tiny dog ran in front of him, barking, collar still around its neck, leash dragging along the concrete.

He couldn’t react. None of this seemed real, yet reality seemed more aggressive than ever.

This was some sci-fi level bullshit. Everybody disappeared while he was knocked out on his bed? Seriously?

This couldn’t be real. There was no way any of this was real.

There was no way that Shuuichi Saihara was the last person on that town, and possibly even the last person on Earth.

 

**DAY 4, 10 PM**

For the longest time, Shuuichi had been hopelessly depressed. Living a stressful life, with parents constantly yelling at him, had really taken a toll on his mental health.

The single good things on his life were detective work and Kaede.

And his parents didn’t approve of either. It was like they wanted him to be miserable.

So it just made sense that he’d want to die sometimes. Anyone on his situation would desire so.

Even then, he still lived on. For his dreams, and for Kaede. For the few good things on his life. For the chance that things might get better someday.

But he was still suicidal, after all.

And it was cruel irony that he, the one who frequently wanted to die so badly, was the only one left alive.

He didn’t want to accept it. For days, he shut himself in his room. He hid underneath his bedsheets and slept for as long as his body allowed him to.

Because maybe when he woke up he’d discover all of that was just a dream.

But it never happened. Instead he just always woke up in the same silent, cold room, with the knowledge that the town around him was empty and dead.

At some point, he couldn’t even sleep anymore, and even though he was despairingly depressed, he couldn’t help but wonder, was the entire world like this too? This led him to scouring the internet for information, trying to see if any TV channel worked and hell, even trying to turn the radio on.

But there was nothing. The TV and radio would only present him static no matter how much he tried, and there wasn’t a single post online about anything related to mass disappearances…

No status updates, no news, not a single person posting since days before.

No one.

Shuuichi could only feel dread. He scoured the internet over and over and found nothing. The most recent posts were all about five days old.

And soon enough, his connection died completely. That was when it finally, actually dawned on him.

He was alone. He was the last person left in the world.

Dread. Shuuichi just felt more dreadful as he thought about it, as he finally accepted it. It was the only conclusion that made sense.

Everything he knew was gone for good. That society that shaped him through his life, those values forcefully inserted in his mind, none of that existed or mattered anymore.

He slumped against his chair and looked at the ceiling.

What would he do now, kill himself? There wasn’t really any meaning to existing anymore. Previously he lived for a person and an occupation he loved deeply, but those didn’t exist anymore, didn’t they?

_Kaede didn’t exist anymore, did she?_

No, no, he didn’t want to think about that. He couldn’t think about that. He’d just get more depressed. He couldn’t…he can’t…

Shuuichi closed his eyes when he felt tears come out. Question related to what to do were burning on his brain more than ever. He was just so _stressed._

For the first time on this empty days, Shuuichi cried. Because he had finally accepted it, he broke down completely. He was alone in the world and he didn’t knew what to do.

He was just scared and confused and lonely and angry and it was too much…

But even with that burning pain in his chest, there was a single spark of curiosity in his mind. Curiosity that was hopeful, pure, and _twisted_ all at once.

With each tear that went down his cheek, each wrecked sob that left his throat, that spark grew a little more.

He didn’t realize it at the time, but that despaired crying was just a way to finally releasing all of those awful emotions, all the ones he’d been bottling up for the past few days due to shock.

At some point it was over. He didn’t knew when exactly. Shuuichi wiped his eyes and cheeks with his sleeve.

He stared at the ceiling blankly, and he felt…calm.

His computer’s screen still showed how the page he wanted to visit couldn’t be loaded due to a lack of connection, but even that didn’t matter anymore.

Because…he was alone in the world.

Shuuichi knew he’d repeated his sentence on his mind so many times, but previously, those were all shocked, unbelieving repeats. This time, it was a hopeful one.

So Shuuichi faintly sighed, and finally noticed just how freakishly exhausted and hungry he was, how gross and dirty he felt. He didn’t recall the last time he had eaten or taken a shower or even left his room in the past few days.

Maybe it was finally time to go out, and face reality.


	2. indulgence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> imma keep it real with u chief. this chapter is extremely dumb and self indulgent and also a headcanon fest. and it also has a lot of saimatsu bits but dw if you dont like that its probably the only chapter to have those.   
> dont take this ch too seriously please dcdnfnbdv (except for the final part, this one is kinda important)

**DAY 5, 12 AM**

Shuuichi took a long shower to wash off his exhaustion, and ate a big meal right after.

And for the first time in so long, he finally felt _alive._

That spark of curiosity had grown and taken over his soul, and now he stood in front of his door, anxious and excited all at once.

There was so much he could do. So much he could explore.

Shuuichi opened the door quickly, thousands of ideas spiraling through his mind. He was left alone and free, with nothing to worry about.

No school, no parents, no societal expectations.

It was so ridiculously _freeing_ and suddenly Shuuichi felt high.

He ran out of home. The air outside was cool, as expected of the midnight air. He took a deep breath and looked around, dazed.

Well, what should he do first?

His excited walking through the empty streets turned into jogging and then into full blown running. It was just now that he noticed how much energy he had stored from sleeping and sitting still for that long.

He really had never felt more alive in his entire life.

He smiled and just ran, with no meaning or destination. Freedom had knocked his thoughts out of order and he loved it.

Eventually Shuuichi reached the mall near his house, and he could almost see his own eyes sparkle.

Seeing how there was already no more internet connection, the power could go out anytime.

That meant he absolutely had to make the most out of it while he still could.

He ran into the mall and stopped for a moment, breathing heavily and quickly. The lights were all on, the stores were all there, open with products ready for him to take.

Shuuichi couldn’t help but laugh to himself. This was insane and he felt ecstatic. He had this entire place just for him.

The first shop to be raided was that Hot Topic he’d been drooling over for months. His parents never let him wear all that edgy garbage he loved so much. This was his chance to go all out.

Hurrying into the store, Shuuichi didn’t even think of it as he got his shaky hands on all of that trash he’d always wanted to own.

This was…probably the most rebellious thing he’d ever done in his life. It was kind of pathetic, in a way. But he couldn’t think about that right now, adrenaline was running through his veins.

With filled shopping bags on his hands, Shuuichi left the store. What place should he raid next? He was already having too much fun with this — Thankfully there wasn’t anyone around to judge his poor attempt at rebellion.

He did feel the slightest bit bad for leaving without paying, but what else would he do? There wasn’t anyone to take his money anyways.

Next place to suffer under his hands was the bookstore. He dropped the Hot Topic bags on the entry and ran to the mystery section.

 

**DAY 5, 13 PM**

When Shuuichi woke up and noticed all those shopping bags around his bed, he smiled dumbly.

Still fully dressed on edgy clothing, he got up. Time for breakfast or something. He didn’t knew. Time didn’t matter anymore.

He walked to the fridge and grabbed a tub of Oreo ice cream. He put on one of the horror DVDs he’d stolen from the mall. This was how he planned to spend his day, eating ice cream, watching horror and enjoying that honeymoon phase he was having with the apocalypse.

Because obviously, this happiness wouldn’t last forever. He would eventually start feeling awful and lonely and he’d think about Kaede and how much he missed her and all those people in his class he never talked to and— Maybe it would be better if he stopped right there.

Shuuichi wasn’t a hedonist by any means, but he sure as hell was a stressed, depressed kid. He’d spent so long of his life feeling miserable, he deserved a little break.

And of course, he had prepared himself for living alone for some time. He did get some books about life skills he might need for this new life, and canned foods for when his lifetime supply of sweets started perishing.

Later, he should probably visit a pharmacy and get some vitamins and first aid stuff. It was unlikely he’d ever need those, but he felt like he should get them just in case.

Maybe he could also get seeds to start a tiny farm on his backyard, who knows. He was on his own now. It was entirely up to him.

But first, he just wanted to enjoy those dumb movies before the power shut down.

 

**DAY 7, 16 PM**

Now that Shuuichi thought about it, he didn’t even have to live in this house anymore.

If he felt like it, he could just grab his things and go live in one of his wealthier neighbor’s homes. The question is, would he ever feel comfortable doing that?

Besides his mall raids he hadn’t really done anything that went too far on the criminal scale. At heart, he was still a law-abiding citizen, even if laws didn’t quite exist anymore.

He did know for sure that this house made him rather uncomfortable, though. There were too many bad memories there. Sticking around kept remembering him of all those awful days and nights were his parents would scream at him over and over—

He sighed and clutched at his chest. It hurt him just to think about it.

Maybe revenge would be a good option. Just absolutely trashing his parents’ room, breaking their phones and burning down their favorite objects.

Hell, maybe he could even burn this damn house down. Just absolutely destroy it. There was nothing good worth saving here, anyway. Besides the things he’d stolen, nothing here was worth even looking at. Everything carried too much bad energy from years of mistreatment at his parents’ hands…

Shuuichi shook his head.

“I shouldn’t do anything too stupid. I can’t lose my self-control…” He sighed.

Of course, self-control was meaningless now, but he didn’t want to lose himself. Shuuichi took some minimal pride on his own discipline, and he wanted to keep it at least for a little longer.

Still deep in thought, he put all of his electronics to charge. Seven days had passed. The power could go out at any time now…

 

**DAY 10, 3 AM**

He woke up to the sound of it.

Even thought it was raining outside, Shuuichi could hear the noise of hundreds — No, _thousands_ — of lights shutting down.

Even though he was tired and dizzy, he knew that there wouldn’t be power anymore, and that was just the beginning of the changes the world he knew would go through now that there wasn’t anyone else here.

 

**DAY 11, 15 PM**

He was starting to grow sick of it.

The excitement had waned down considerably now. Raiding the mall wasn’t as much fun after he’d done it three times. He could still entertain himself with his books and by doing dumb things like riding shopping carts at the supermarket, though.

Still, the loneliness was starting to set in. For the past days, Shuuichi had repressed any thought of Kaede he might get, but lately, she’s been appearing in his mind more and more often.

He missed her. Missed her hugs, kisses and support. Shuuichi wished he could be with her right now.

Without his parents to bother, he’d be finally able to bring her to his house and just spend the whole afternoon talking about nothing in particular and snacking.

He’d dreamed of doing such things for so long. But now she was gone, and he couldn’t do any of that anymore.

Maybe he should find something else to do.

 

**DAY 14, 8 AM**

Two weeks were gone now.

Shuuichi had finished his third book of the week. He’d really been only spending his days inside, reading.

Sometimes he’d go out for walks, just to breathe some fresh air. But there wasn’t really anything interesting to do outside.

He’d been thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to get some weapons…just in case.

It wasn’t like he knew how to wield complex weaponry, but maybe a baseball bat or a gun, if he could find one, would be good to own.

Even if they would likely never be used, owning them would make him feel safer.

…

He missed Kaede.

 

**DAY 19, 10 PM**

Kaede used to play piano.

She was the best musician Shuuichi had ever heard. He didn’t know a single thing about music, but he knew that _damn,_ she was really good at playing it.

He remembered how one time he jokingly asked her to play Welcome to the Black Parade and she actually did. They had so much fun that day…

He also remembers the first time he went to one of her performances. It was some kind of school talent show, a pretty small event considering the other ones Kaede had played at. But it was his first time seeing her perform in front of so many people, and it was amazing.

She won the contest. Shuuichi could still remember her pure, genuine smile as she held the trophy in her hands. A smile that could light up an entire room.

He wonders if she still had that trophy in her house. He wonders if paying the place a visit would make him feel any better.

He didn’t want to invade Kaede’s house, but he missed her more than anything. Maybe avoiding thoughts of her really weren’t a good idea, and he had to actually confront those feelings.

This might help him get closure.

 

**DAY 21, 9 AM**

After days of heavy thinking, Shuuichi decided it would be good for him to pay his late girlfriend’s home a visit.

Could he even call her that? He wasn’t sure. She didn’t outright _die,_ but she did disappear, and it was a fact that he couldn’t find her anywhere.

He felt selfish, invading Kaede’s home like that, but that place just brought so many good memories to him, and he really needed that right now. Really needed to actually think about Kaede instead of just running away from thoughts about her like a coward—

Not even a month had passed and he was already going back to his depression.

This was something to be expected, of course. Depression _is_ an illness, after all…obviously, as soon as that euphoria faded away, he’d start feeling awful again.

Maybe this would lift his spirits a bit, though.

And with those heavy thoughts in mind, Shuuichi found himself out of his house, and on the way to Kaede’s place. It was right near his high school’s building, so that meant he’d have to drive for a while to get there.

He got inside his mother’s car and just started making his way, trying not to think too hard about the memories that kept flooding into his mind— And failing, because no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t get rid of the selfish feeling that all of this was ridiculously unfair and that _Kaede_ didn’t deserve to disappear with the others.

If he could…he’d like to have her back. There was a whole world out there, waiting for someone to take it, but how could he do something like that by himself?

It was just depressing. Shuuichi normally enjoyed solitude, but after that he just felt really lonely. The thought of having someone with him, even if they weren’t Kaede, was the only thing in his mind.

He couldn’t help but think about it. To imagine having an entire world left just for him and another person, exploring all of this with them and just being completely free to do whatever they wanted, anywhere they wanted…

Shuuichi chuckled to himself. Maybe all the novels he was reading were getting to him. Since when had he been that much of a hopeless romantic?

Loneliness really brings out another side of people, he guessed.

Of course, there was also a chance that, plainly, he was just going mad. This was one truth he wouldn’t like to face now, though.

He smiled faintly as he parked the car, not really caring about it’s exact placing, nearby the school building.

Bad thoughts started appearing in his mind as soon as he locked his eyes on the building. Seeing it again made Shuuichi muse whether he should maybe, _just maybe,_ trash that place just for the hell of it. Burn all the documents down and smash the windows as a way of getting revenge for all those awful years.

As much as that sounded like good stress relief, that wasn’t his priority right now. The wannabe detective shrugged the thought off, and turned in the direction of Kaede’s house.

He could barely see it from there, but just the glimpse of the beige walls that he caught was enough to make his chest hurt.

Shuuichi took a deep breath, already feeling like this wouldn’t be an easy visit.

He stepped forwards.

And cutting through the stilling silence of that empty world, echoed a gunshot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^)  
> ill try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible dvjjfbf  
> tell me if there are any typos or mistakes btw im really tired and too anxious to get a beta reader


	3. red herring

**DAY 21, 10 AM**

Even seconds after the sound had echoed, Shuuichi still stood there, dumbly still and unsure of what he should do next.

The sound seemed like it came from the right side of the school building. Should he check it? The most logical answer would be _yes, of course,_ but at the same time, he didn’t even know if he wanted to check it.

Now that he thinks about it, he’s never really questioned in depth what happened to the world. He’d never even tried to guess whether it was scientific or supernatural. All he knew was that it was real and he was alone. Or was he?

He took a hesitant step in the sound’s direction and his mind ran wild trying to find an explanation for it. He stared at the spot were he assumed it came from, expecting. What he was expecting, though, he did not know.

His throat suddenly felt dry. He had absolutely no idea what he was doing or what he was dealing with. It could be an animal that accidentally pulled a gun’s trigger, his mind playing tricks on him, or something else entirely.

He waited a couple seconds. Then he took a couple more cautious steps forward, trying to focus on hearing as best as he could. Slowly, Shuuichi started approaching the building’s right side corner, were the sound likely came from.

He leaned against the wall to try and hide just in case. If it was a person, they were certainly armed, and there was no way to know if they were hostile or not—

Shuuichi immediately stopped the train of thought. Why was he already jumping to the conclusion that it was a person? He’d been completely isolated for the last 21 days. It was a possibility, yes, but it wasn’t _that_ likely.

…a part of him wanted to believe that, though.

He shook his head, trying to focus back on his task. As careful as he could, he moved closer to the very corner of the wall, right where it ended.

For the briefest moment, Shuuichi wasn’t sure if he really should look or not. If there was someone else there, they had a gun, and maybe if they saw him, something bad would happen…

He breathed in deeply. No, he couldn’t let his fear get the best out of him now, he should check this before thinking about being scared.

So, shakily, the wannabe detective peeked from behind the wall, and right when his gaze met the spot, his breath froze inside of him, and he was presented with an eyeful of—

Absolutely nothing.

He released the breath he held, allowing himself to finally relax. An uncomfortable emotion washed over him, one that he didn’t want to admit that was disappointment.

He looked around a bit more thoroughly, just to be sure there wasn’t anything here. Even after that, though, he didn’t see anything out of ordinary.

Shuuichi took a couple of steps forward, then left and right, and still, nothing. All he could see there were the windows from the rooms in the first floor, and a glimpse of the gym far away from him.

He sighed. That was enough to confirm that the gunshot wasn’t real. It was just him going crazy.

Shuuichi decided to walk away. He had already wasted a lot of time there…he should get back to his original task.

Then he felt his foot accidentally step on something. Instinctively, he looked down to see what it was, and—

His stomach dropped. There was it.

He wasn’t going crazy _at all._

A tremble running through his body, Shuuichi bent down, and picked up the gun from the ground. He stared at it, eyes going wide.

The weapon felt heavy against his palm, and warm. He checked to see if it was loaded, and found out that it was — Except that one bullet was missing

The gun fell to the ground with his shock. That was real. The gunshot was real. It happened. It actually happened.

Shuuichi _wasn’t alone at all._

The air around him suddenly wasn’t enough for him to breathe. He got up from his previous position, and tried to slow his breathing, to calm himself. He couldn’t even understand why he was so nervous in the first place…

Shuuichi dusted off his jeans, now feeling a bit calmer. If there was someone else in this town, he should probably find them. He studied the area, deciding he had to look for this person, but not really knowing where to start.

Suddenly there was a crash — A blast of the sound of a window being broken. Shuuichi flinched at first, startled by the loud noise he was never too fond of, but quickly became rational again.

He didn’t have the best hearing, but he was sure that noise came from behind the school.

Before he knew it, Shuuichi started running. He had to find whoever was doing this.

Thoughts of how this person must be like started popping up in his racing mind. Considering the broken window, it was possible that they might be a teenager like him, or at least a young adult…He couldn’t imagine anyone older wanting to break the windows of a school.

And they left the gun there soon after firing, too. It made him wonder why. Did they accidentally drop it? Or was there some reason for leaving it there?

Shuuichi stopped, panting and with his legs feeling the slightest bit painful, as soon as he detected the broken window. After regaining his breath, he analyzed it as best as he could.

It led to the cafeteria, and it was almost completely shattered. On the ground near it, was a metal baseball bat, which he concluded was the weapon used to break the window.

That was…strange. Why did the person who broke it leave the bat there? Shuuichi had assumed that they were just going on a vandalism spree, but since they just abandoned the bat, maybe it was something else…

Careful not to hurt himself with the broken glass, he entered the cafeteria through the window, in hopes to investigate further.

And the first thing he detected were strange green scribbles on one of the tables.

Shuuichi narrowed his eyes while approaching it…it was just a bunch of odd doodles. Mostly little heart and smiley faces…all of them doodled around a big drawn arrow that pointed upwards.

All of them were made with glowing paint, Shuuichi could tell, and they were completely dry, which indicated that they were done some time ago. His gaze followed the bigger arrow drawing, and met the table that it pointed to.

On this table, there was also an arrow, and so was in the next. It took him no more than a couple seconds to notice that multiple tables were aligned in a row, all with arrows painted on it, as if to indicate some kind of path.

He followed the arrows with cautious steps. Now it was definitely confirmed — Shuuichi wasn’t alone. And whoever he happened to be stranded with made no sense.

He stopped when he reached the cafeteria’s door, that had a bunch of big smiley faces drawn on it. He gulped. What was the person’s intention with this…? Were they expecting him?

Now that the thought about it, that was a valid explanation. It would mean that the gun being fired and the window being broken were part of whatever plan they had, too…

He opened the door and passed through it, entering the school hallway. And of course, it was also vandalized to hell and back with glowing paint.

Shuuichi felt his stomach hurt. This…was starting to get creepy. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed completely harmless. And this exact fact was the most unsettling of it all.

Because there wasn’t a proper setting for a crime to be committed. There wasn’t really any police anymore, so there would be no reason to anyone to lure him inside an empty school if they wanted to kill him or something.

His brain just kept telling him that it was all a huge, overly elaborate prank. But what kind of person would do this? He had trouble even trying to imagine them.

Maybe he was just stupid.

Shuuichi stared at the lockers, debating whether he should follow the arrows drawn on them or not.

His final decision was that yes, he should. This could be the biggest mistake of his goddamn life, but his curiosity surrounding these bizarre events was…morbid. Now he wanted nothing more than to know what the hell was behind all of that.

He walked, following the directions that the sloppily drawn arrows showed him, and ended up venturing deeper into the school’s hallway.

He could feel his legs tremble a little bit when he noticed that the place just seemed to get darker, since the windows from a certain point were covered by some kind of black paper…or was it fabric? He couldn’t see very well.

At some point through his journey, Shuuichi also noticed that there weren’t just arrows anymore. Instead, ominous messages were scribbled over the lockers and walls.

Even though the writing was rather sloppy, he could read _“Welcome to my world” “Are you sure you wish to continue?” “Watch your steps”_ and many others that got progressively less coherent.

Each and every message was adorned with tiny stars and sparkles drawn around them.

…he didn’t knew whether to find it creepy, funny, or just plain weird.

Nevertheless, Shuuichi kept following them. The arrows and cryptic messages led him along the hallways, then two floors above, then more along the hallways, and…

_“DEAD END”_ Shuuichi read, written right over double doors, with the drawing of a cute character winking at him and doing a peace sign right close to it.

This was probably where he would meet whoever wasted their time on…whatever this was.

He reached at the door, hesitating. Was this really just some prank? His intuition kept telling him so. There wasn’t that much hard evidence to prove that, but it just…felt like it.

In the past, Shuuichi had solved a couple of cases that ended up being pranks, so he’d know how they “felt” like. Of course, those cases really weren’t anything _big_ like murders, but…

He looked down, unable to see much because of the hallway’s darkness. “Is this really a good idea?” He asked himself, fully aware of the chance that he’d meet someone dangerous behind those doors.

As dangerous as they could be, though, they _were_ a fellow survivor of whatever apocalyptic phenomena took over the world. If Shuuichi was lucky, maybe this person would have some kind of information he doesn’t.

Maybe he’d be able to understand this whole situation a little bit better.

Clinging to this small hope he created, Shuuichi opened the door.

Inside the room, it was pitch black. He squinted, trying to see his surroundings, and took a couple step forwards.

“What the hell…” He thought “What room is this?”

He walked a bit more. Suddenly, he heard the door behind him close.

He perked up instantly, eyes darting to where the door once was. He was about to make a run for it, to check if it was locked or not, but then the noise of loud steps echoed through the room.

“W-Who’s there?” He choked out, sounding way more nervous than he’d like. Of course, this was to be expected in this kind of situation. Things were getting overly creepy really fast.

But there was no response. No verbal one, at least. Just a string of childish giggles.

More loud steps. It sounded like someone wearing heavy boots was stomping on the floor. Shuuichi tried turning his head on its direction, but with absolutely no visual cue to follow, it was a little hard.

He really couldn’t see anything.

Shuuichi cursed at that. He kept trying to squint and look around but was unable to and—

Suddenly, bright lights were flooding into the room. Unused to them, he closed his eyes and stumbled back. _What the hell? Didn’t the power go out a while ago?_

“Hey, hey” A voice called out for him. It was one he’d never heard before, it had a youthful tone filled with some kind of childishly sadistic glee “Pay attention to me, I’ve been expecting you!”

As much as it hurt, Shuuichi tried opening his eyes.

Honestly, he didn’t knew what he expected to see there. Considering the bizarre directions scribbled all over the school and the weird gunshot and window-breaking to lure him inside, he was aware that the person behind that was more than a little _odd._ He expected them to be so.

He thought he was prepared. He thought that no matter what this person ended up being like, he wouldn’t be shocked.

…

It was stupid of him to think so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SRRY FOR ENDING A CHAPTER WITH A CLIFFHANGER AGAIN i just rly like doin this,, i promise ill stop for next ones tho  
> anyways i hope u guys liked it...! pls leave a comment if you can!


	4. broken reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well here is the chapter u guys were waiting for. the rat bitch's debut.  
> jfjdshgk i hope it isn't too awful i'm bad at writing debut chapters--

With the lights on, Shuuichi found himself in the drama room, facing the stage. And on it, a small person stood proudly, with their arms open as if to

“Well hello there!” Their voice sang playfully, and Shuuichi felt like he could just pass out purely from the weirdness of the situation “Took you long enough to find me!”

Some clown mask was taken off — One that  Shuuichi barely had the time to register, because he honestly couldn’t even process information anymore — And underneath it was the face of a grinning, pale boy, with strange purple hair that was slightly curled at the tips.

“What” He couldn’t help but utter “W-Who the hell are you?”

The boy rolled his eyes “Come on! Don’t give me such a boring reaction! Aren’t you happy you found another survivor? Aren’t you curious? Aren’t you confused by my plan?”

“B-Boring?!”

“Should I even tell you my name?” The purple-haired boy’s grin expanded, almost menacingly, and he went on “Are you even worth hearing it? I’m not sure, you’re such a boring detective, after all…”

He faked a dramatical sigh, and walked in circles for a bit, then sitting on the stage, pouting. Shuuichi’s head was spinning…

“I thought this would be more fun. What a waste”

He bit his lip. How…was he supposed to react in a situation like this? The eccentric boy didn’t seem to have any intention of answering his questions. He thought about pressing him for answers, but was he even _capable_ of such a thing? His heart was already racing from nervousness—

But of course, the universe wasn’t done blasting him with unwanted surprises.

“Hey, are you done? I’m tired of waiting” Before he could even begin to think of his next move, the noise of the door being opened filled the room, followed by a slightly high pitched, stoic voice.

And a girl had entered the room. A girl with little expression of her face, piercing crimson eyes and flowy, long dark hair in twintails.

Suddenly everything made sense.

Sort of.

Well, not really.

But now he could see how the boy, who was supposedly the one behind that bizarre plan, got it to work. He probably made the girl help him, and—

“Makiiii! You ruined my plan!” He whined “Were you even taking this seriously?”

“Of course not” She sighed, and closed the door behind her, walking towards Shuuichi “I’ve told you it was a stupid idea from the beginning. We could have just talked to him, you idiot.”

“But it was working until you stepped in and ruined everything, you meanie!” He pouted and crossed his arms like a child, turning his head away from both her and Shuuichi.

“Um.” He mumbled, finally speaking up, and getting the girl’s attention turned to him “I’m sorry, could you explain what’s going on to me? And who are you two?”

“Of course” There was a hint of exasperation on her voice as she seemed to shoot the boy some kind of scolding glare “I’m Maki Harukawa, and he’s Kokichi Ouma. What you just went through was his idea and he made me go along with it”

Shuuichi blinked and opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again. What would he even _say?_ He didn’t knew a thing about how he should act in this situation.

Harukawa just stood there quietly. He half-expected her to keep going with her explanation but she just…didn’t. Apparently, that was really all there was to this. It was just a stupid prank done to lure him in.

 _Just a stupid prank,_ Shuuichi repeated mentally, and even though he did that, it didn’t help him understand the fact at all.

He took a deep breath, head still spinning, and tried his best to ground himself, recalling of their situation, and the whole “end of the world” ordeal he still couldn’t understand.

“So…you two are also survivors of…whatever happened a while back?” He started, somewhat awkward, but ultimately doing his best “Do you happen to know if—”

“Nope! We don’t know anything” Ouma’s voice rang back into the conversation, and he shrugged “We know that it happened around 20 days or so ago. Everyone just disappeared all of a sudden!”

Harukawa shot him a strange look, then focused back into talking.

“He is…telling the truth, surprisingly. We probably know as little as you do” She spoke “We’ve been searching around to see if we could find other people, and when we came to this town, we found you”

“…I see” Shuuichi lowered his head a bit, processing the information. Apparently, Ouma and Harukawa were just as clueless as he was…but even if they didn’t have any information, the mere fact that they were here implied that there were other people besides them.

Maybe if he searched hard enough, he’d find someone who knew something — _anything —_ about this situation.

And of course, there was always the small chance that they were lying, and _did_ know more about how the world ended…

No matter how this turned out to be, there was the chance that he’d get some kind of clue to understand this situation better, and this was exactly what kept him going.

“Well, that’s enough talking!” Ouma busted into the conversation again, jumping off the stage and falling right in front of Shuuichi “Saihara! Me and Harumaki are in a mission. Care to join us?” He asked sweetly and _hold on a second, he didn’t recall introducing himself to Ouma._

“Wait, how do you know my name?” The question slipped out before he could stop it.

Ouma’s expression didn’t falter one bit. It almost like he was completely confident on whatever _clownery_ he was doing.

“That’s cause I’ve been stalking you since everyone else disappeared, duh!” He seemed eager to reply “Just kidding, that was a lie! Or was it?”

To say that Shuuichi was unsettled would be an understatement.

“Well, time to go! There’s a mission to be completed. I’ll see you two outside!” The purple haired boy chirped, and promptly dashed out of the room.

“W-Wait!” Shuuichi shouted. Harukawa shook her head with the calmness of someone who expected all of that to happen, who understood what was going on.

She began to make her way out of the room as well, walking away from him and towards the door.

“…you’re free to join us, if you want” Was what she said before leaving.

Shuuichi just had so many questions. Why did they create this unnecessarily complex plan just to get him to talk to them? How did Ouma know who he was? For how long have they been observing him? Were the two of them being honest about not knowing what was going on? _Why was Ouma like that?_

He took a deep breath. It was like things got more confusing at each minute that passed. Just the thought of it made him want to give up on trying to understand everything.

He sighed and stepped forwards before hesitating. Was this really okay? Was following these people a good choice? He didn’t exactly have much of an option right now. He could go home and rot by himself until his days are over, or follow those two and see where it leads.

Shuuichi closed his eyes and took another step forwards, breathing deeply.

He swore he tried not to spiral down into overthinking.

 

**DAY 21, 11 AM**

It took him a bit of time to find Ouma and Harukawa, and at each step that Shuuichi took while walking through his path made him feel more ridiculous.

Eventually he reached the cafeteria, with absolutely no idea of what he was doing, and saw the duo right near the broken window.

_Okay. Here they are._

“Hey, we’re over there!” Ouma shouted enthusiastically, waving his hand on the air “You’re gonna join us, right?”

Shuuichi walked towards them clumsily, for some reason worried about tripping and making a fool of himself in front of those two, and was about to ask what they were going to do right before he caught a glimpse of something being held by Ouma.

“Is that a metal bat?” He questioned, earning a wider smile as a response.

“Yup! It’s part of our mission” He explained “We’re gonna tear this place apart and you’re gonna help us!”

“H-Hold on, I don’t remember agreeing to that…” Shuuichi backed off for a bit, holding his hands up in front of his chest.

“And I don’t remember giving you a choice” He snickered darkly, and then handed the metal bat to him, voice quickly turning cheerful and bright again “C’mon, it will be fun! You were a student here, right? There’s no way you don’t want to break this place even a little bit”

He started making his way somewhere with quick skips, followed by a coolly quiet Harukawa and completely dumbfounded Shuuichi.

So he knew where he studied too…or did he really? For all Shuuichi knew, Ouma could just be spouting random guesses to try and make him believe he knew more than he let on.

He hesitated for a bit before answering. Maybe this was a good moment to test a theory.

“I wasn’t a student here” He lied, just to see how Ouma would react. This could get him a better understanding of the cryptic boy’s behavior.

Ouma stopped walking at the lie. Since he had his back turned to him, Shuuichi couldn’t quite see his face. He gulped. How would he react, Shuuichi wondered…

“Nishishi, you think you can lie to me?” He turned his face to Shuuichi, looking as mischievous as expected “I’m a master liar, y’know? Seeing through lies from a newbie like you is a piece of cake to me!” He boasted “Besides, I’ve seen your student file.”

Any kind of response Shuuichi might have planned earlier died in his throat and he was left completely silent, his mouth agape. Ouma seemed…awfully amused at that.

This was more than enough for Shuuichi to know that trying to decode his behavior wasn’t as easy as he thought it’d be.

And that was how he decided to shut up, at least for a while, and just follow him. There wasn’t anything better to do, anyway.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but keep thinking about the root of this entire situation. If Harukawa and Ouma had survived too, there was likely other people beside them.

But they were nothing like Shuuichi, or at least it seemed so. One would expect the survivors of a big phenomena like that to have some kind of similarity, something that could be deduced to be the _reason_ for them to have survived, but there seemed to be none.

From what he could tell, Harukawa and Ouma were at least somewhat close. Harukawa looked like a serious kind of person, and someone like that wouldn’t go along with bizarre antics too easily. There had to be at least some kind of bond between them.

But Shuuichi just couldn’t trace this thought back to anything. There was a severe lack of clues for him to understand the situation and he just felt confused and _uncomfortable,_ even if he kept going along due to morbid curiosity.

Feeling defeated, he let out a sigh, going as far as wondering if Ouma had planned him to feel this way so he could wrap him into this situation more effectively. He wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case. It was already established that he was a person who knew much more than he let on…

“Saihara-chan, you’re gonna die from stress if you think like that” The very reason for Shuuichi’s overthinking giggled, and he was pulled out of his thoughts into the real world, noticing they were right outside a classroom “C’mon, we don’t have time to think! Those windows won’t break themselves, y’know?”

Ouma batted his eyelashes almost flirtily, and handed the metal bat to Shuuichi, who grabbed it after some hesitation.

He looked at the window, knowing exactly what Ouma wanted him to do, but not really being sure if he _wanted_ to do that.

Then he raised the bat somewhat weakly, and let it collide with the glass, wincing when he cracked the window.

“Booooring” Ouma booed from behind him “Put on a show! I know you can do better!”

Why was he acting like they were friends already…? God, there was just so much about Ouma he couldn’t understand _at all._

Still, Shuuichi gripped the bat a little tighter, then raised it again.

He had already established to himself that he didn’t believe that Ouma and Harukawa knew this little. That they _had_ to have more information.

And wanted to at least try to uncover what was going on. Maybe this was a stupid idea but…

At the moment, cooperating couldn’t be a bad choice, right?

So he thought, and let the bat collide with the window yet again.

_What had he gotten himself into?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry ive been taking so long to update HHH im really just tired and i was kinda going through a writers block


	5. apocalypse shelter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no excuse for disappearing for so long lol i just didnt have the energy to write. but im on summer break right now and im gonna start updating this so fucking fast that yall are gonna get sick of me.  
> also, i hope you guys enjoy cliche romance tropes because im gonna shove a bunch of them in this story. i just think theyre neat....

**DAY 22, TIME UNKNOWN**

When Shuuichi opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was the heaviness of something weighting down on his body.

He looked around, panicked. It was too dark to see anything but the hints of a small room’s walls. His heart rate spiked — _Where was he? —_ and he tried to calm himself by breathing deeply, but no air went inside his lungs.

Shuuichi choked. What was going on? Why couldn’t he breathe? He could feel a horrible trembling sensation all over his body as he fell into his knees. Suddenly, he couldn’t move either.

He clutched his chest, dread filling up his senses. Suddenly, there was the flash of colors in the dark room — Streaks of light gold, bright purple, and deep blue. His head instinctively turned towards the blob of lights.

And so he saw her. Kaede, the one he had wanted to see the most through all of these impossibly long days. She still looked just like the last time he saw her, and her hands were held up, touching something transparent like a wall of glass that was separating the two of them.

Her eyes widened when she noticed him, and her mouth went agape, then moved as if she said something, but Shuuichi couldn’t hear.

He wanted to get up and run towards her and reach out. Everything had been so strange lately, Shuuichi just desperately wanted to cling to the one thing that he knew would bring him comfort, but he couldn’t move.

Kaede seemed frantic, scared, _desperate_ even. She banged on the glass, still saying things Shuuichi couldn’t hear, and kept looking back as if something was about to get her. He felt absolutely terrible, being unable to do anything like that.

His limbs were going cold out of pure despair, but he could still feel the burning sensation on his skin as he mentally yelled at himself to move.

But he was helpless even then. There was nothing he could do — He wasn’t _allowed_ to do it. But he kept on trying, because maybe if he worked hard enough he’d be able to finally reach her, and—

 

**DAY 22, 8 AM.**

“Rise and shine, Saihara-chan!” Even if Ouma’s voice always just sounded playful and fun, at the time it felt like a kick to his stomach.

Shuuichi got up with a jump, choking on his breath and coughing like he had water filling up his lungs. Instinctively, he clutched his chest, breathing hard and erratic.

 _“Where was Kaede?”_ Was the only thing in his mind, he could almost feel it pulsating inside his brain. His eyes darted around everywhere, still half expecting to see the dark room, but all he saw was his own bedroom.

He inhaled and exhaled, heart dropping to his stomach, dizziness replacing the panic he felt on his entire body. Of course. There was no Kaede, it was just a dream. Just a stupid dream.

Nothing had changed after all.

As soon as he was fully reinserted into that reality, his eyes went to Ouma, who stood at the bedroom door, a big, bright and probably fake smile shining on his face.

“Wow, is everything okay here? Did I startle you?” His questions had a mocking tone, but the possibility that they were genuine was still there. He could still feel it somewhere…

“I’m…I’m okay” Shuuichi muttered “Just had a weird dream, that’s all” He rubbed his eyes, and took another deep breath, still not feeling completely grounded.

Mentally, he replayed the latest events on his mind, just to remind himself that things were still the same. That he was still here.

From him vandalizing the school with Ouma and Harukawa, to him coming back home with the two and offering to let them stay the night.

“Saihara-chan is such a weakling, he can’t even handle his own dreams” Ouma giggled, making Shuuichi frown, irritation building up on his chest “Kidding, kidding! But you should come back to reality already, cause Maki and I are about to leave for breakfast without you!”

“Leave…for breakfast?” He questioned, getting up from his bed and attempting to flatten his messy hair. He briefly glanced at himself on the mirror, noticing his dark circles looked slightly worse than usual. Yikes.

“Yeah! You really thought we’d stay at your house for the whole day?” Ouma eagerly chattered from the door “That’s no fun! We’re alone in this world anyway, so why not have breakfast at someplace cooler, like a cafe or something?”

“I don’t know, it feels a bit wrong for me to do that…” He muttered absentmindedly while adjusting the edgy clothing he was still wearing.

The purple-haired boy smirked at that “Don’t be such a goody two-shoes, laws don’t matter anymore. Besides, you already did worse yesterday by beating the principal’s desk to pieces!”

The memory of him breaking all that furniture came back to him, and he winced. Shuuichi really…had gotten a little too carried away with that.

“I guess…you’re right…” He said through gritted teeth, and finished tying his shoes “A-Alright, I’m ready. Let’s get breakfast”

Ouma smiled brightly, and led the way out of the room. Shuuichi followed behind him, feeling just the slightest bit anxious.

They have known each other for little more than a day, but Ouma was already so _friendly_ with him. He was already dragging him around and making jokes all the time, and for some reason it didn’t unsettle Shuuichi all that much.

But he could find an explanation to his feelings, of course. He had been lonely, depressed, and bored out of his mind, so obviously he’d go along with whatever that came into his life. But it was so puzzling that Ouma acted so buddy-buddy with him, especially when he didn’t knew a single thing about the other boy.

And…he didn’t really want to think about it, but as annoying as Ouma presented himself as, there was something alluring about the cryptic way he behaved.

Maybe this was what made Shuuichi feel so drawn to that stranger…he was still a detective at heart, after all.

**DAY 24, 3 PM.**

As much as Shuuichi hated to admit it, he was adapting really quickly.

Even though Ouma was downright cryptic and Harukawa seemed to wish for his death, he stayed with them. He couldn’t quite understand why, couldn’t trace back to the root of these weird feelings, but there was just something that kept him attached to the duo.

He didn’t knew anything about those two, and he felt like each day that passed, he understood less about them, but maybe this was one of the reasons that he stayed. He’s always had a thing for solving mysteries, after all…

But part of him knew vaguely that it wasn’t just because of the mystery. Maybe it just was because of the loneliness, or the fact that Ouma seemed to have a fascination in trying to get him to loosen up.

Ouma in general just seemed to be crazy about coaxing reactions out of people, he had concluded. It was like each one of his actions was calculated for maximum shock, humor, or even anger. It was…completely different from anyone Shuuichi had ever known.

It made Shuuichi wonder, sometimes, about the other sides of his personality. There was no way Ouma’s identity was entirely made up of lies and tricks, right? He had the feeling that he had so many more sides to him.

Ouma was just a mystery, plain and simple. One that kept always finding its way into Shuuichi’s mind, even at moments like this.

“Saihara, did you get everything?” Harukawa’s voice pulls him back into reality, and he jolts, almost dropping the water bottle he was holding.

“Y-Yeah, I did! Sorry it took a while” He placed the bottle inside his backpack “Let’s go meet Ouma at the entrance”

Harukawa merely nodded, and they both walked side to side towards the entrance of the supermarket.

This was about the second time that the three of them went to the supermarket to get food, and Shuuichi was already pretty much used to it. They never got too much food, since they didn’t really have the need to stock up, but it was a nice, simple task.

It sort of reminded Shuuichi of when he had to run small errands for his uncle. It was comforting, in a way.

“Hey, hey!” Ouma chimed, standing right near the front doors with a bright smile on his face “Wow, you two were so slow! I’ve been waiting here for hours!”

Shuuichi shook his head, unable to contain the sigh that left him. This time at least he could tell that Ouma wasn’t being serious.

“That’s a lie and you know it” Harukawa chuckled at him, who smiled even wider at that.

“No way! I hate lies and jokes!”

The trio walked away from the supermarket into the parking lot, and then into the streets. Harukawa and Ouma kept on chatting about things he didn’t feel like paying attention in.

This was just how his days have been lately.

Exploring empty stores and houses, gathering things, walking around the town and occasionally falling for Ouma’s pranks.

It felt completely alien to him at first, but now he had just accepted it as some weird simplicity.

Still, it was sort of awkward. Harukawa and Ouma were so close. He could tell even if they weren’t particularly affectionate towards each other, and it made him feel sort of like an outsider…

But, well, he _was_ an outsider. So it was expected for him to feel this way.

“Sai-ha-ra” Ouma sang, skipping so he was walking right by his side, making Shuuichi jump a bit at the closeness “Did you get enough water?”

“Y-Yes? I got five bottles” He responded, trying his best to sound nonchalant, but the way he was being stared at made it difficult  “That’s enough for a day right?”

“I guess” Ouma muttered, tapping his chin.

Shuuichi watched him cautiously. He was staring up, seemingly deep in thought.

“We should get some more, though” Harukawa spoke “Won’t we be skipping town anytime soon?”

Ouma blinked, and then stopped walking. Instinctively, Shuuichi stopped along, and so did Harukawa.

“Oh oopsie, I forgot about that” He giggled in an almost sheepish fashion, scratching the back of his neck. Harukawa sighed.

“…sure” She said, and Shuuichi could tell she didn’t believe one bit in what Ouma had just told them “I think we should do that, though. We could find other survivors.”

“Yeah, you’re right” Ouma nodded, and went back to walking, followed by the others “You’re right” He repeated. Harukawa stared for a while, raising a brow.

“What are you planning?” She asked, the smallest hint of a warning tone on her voice was enough to make Shuuichi feel a little chilly.

“Planning? Nishishi, I’ve never made any plan in my life!” Ouma’s lips widened in a grin “But well, I just think it would be nice if we did something a little different”

“Like what…?” Shuuichi asked, trying to get into the conversation. Bonding with those people was harder than he expected—

“Well, we _are_ living in a post-apocalyptic world, aren’t we?” He narrowed his eyes mischievously “We could have some fun with this!”

“Have fun _how,_ Ouma?” Harukawa asked.

“Let’s pretend the world has actually ended! We can spend the night in a car and camp! What do you guys think?” He clenched his fists and rose them in front of his chest, eyes sparkling “It’s gonna be fun! Let’s imagine that meteors have destroyed everything around us and our only option is to camp in a tiny cramped car!”

“That…doesn’t sound fun at all” Shuuichi pointed out with a nervous smile.

“C’mon, don’t be such a killjoy!” Ouma pouted “We have the world all for ourselves, we need to _have fun!”_

He whined, stepping closer to Shuuichi at every word spoken, making the taller boy feel progressively more awkward.

Honestly, why was Ouma like that? Hkept throwing tantrums and whining like a child and making stupid jokes — Yet as annoying as he was, Shuuichi just couldn’t bring himself to get mad at him for some reason.

It was strange at best, and profoundly cryptic at worst. Shuuichi couldn’t tell if he liked it or not. But he couldn’t deny it was interesting to see, in a way.

And maybe because of this exact reason, because of how interesting Ouma was, Shuuichi found himself agreeing to his stupid idea.

“…alright” He sighed, looking down but not missing the slightest intensifying of the twinkle in Ouma’s eyes.

“You’re seriously gonna agree so easily?” Harukawa pointed out “That’s gross”

“W-Well, I…” He stammered, trying to formulate a justification that didn’t sound weird.

“But that’s fine. If that’s what you two want to do, then I guess I’ll join in too” She turned her head away, hands reaching for a twintail, playing with locks of hair “I don’t care either way”

“That’s the spirit!” Ouma cheered, and that’s how Shuuichi knew he was in for a wild ride.

 

**DAY 24, 8 PM.**

As soon as the sun set, Shuuichi found himself looking for a suitable car to act as their apocalypse shelter.

And by the time it was fully dark, he was sitting on the driver’s seat of a black minivan parked in the middle of the street, legs dangling off the car, watching as Harukawa placed a lantern on the top of the vehicle to act as their lamp.

“So our camp is set!” Ouma clapped his hands together. He looked awfully happy at what was going on, and it seemed…oddly sincere. Shuuichi wondered if he was really that fond of camping.

“It is” Harukawa nodded, adjusting the lantern so it gave them just enough lighting, and then sitting on the ground once she was done “And now what? I know you have a reason for wanting to set this up”

“Awh, Harumaki, you know me so well!” He cooed “But you’re wrong this time, there’s no real reason for this! I just wanted us to bond as a group, y’know?”

She seemed completely unfazed.

“That, and I wanted us to play a little game” He smirked, and Harukawa muttered something that sounded like a _but of course._

“Spit it out then, what game do you want to play?” She asked. Meanwhile, Ouma was already reaching for Shuuichi’s backpack and pulling out a half-empty water bottle.

“Let’s play truth or dare!” He announced, and sat near his friend on the ground, placing the bottle on the middle of the imaginary circle “That okay with you, Saihara-chan?”

Shuuichi felt himself freeze up for a second. The phrase “Truth or Dare” was enough to trigger 9th grade flashbacks in his mind, and they were _very_ awkward—

“Um. Well…” He stuttered, looking away and hoping Ouma wouldn’t notice that his face was burning with embarrassment “I, uh, don’t really like this game, so if we could play anything else…”

“Ehhh, no way! You’re playing with us!” The small boy said, and grabbed Shuuichi’s arm, pulling him towards the ground.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” Shuuichi shouted, and hurried to sit in the circle.

Ouma just smiled fakely at that. That damn clown…

“Good” He reached for the bottle “I’m gonna spin it now, okay?”

“Whatever” Was Harukawa’s reply, and spin he did.

Shuuichi’s heart was racing. Not as much as it had when he found out the world had fucking ended, but it was still beating considerably fast. He gulped, hoping not to get into an awkward situation—

“Woah, Saihara-chan has to ask me a question!” Ouma beamed, and that’s when he noticed the bottle had stopped spinning “Nishishi, how lucky of me! I can’t wait to sate Saihara-chan’s curiosity!”

“S-So, Ouma…truth or dare?” Unable to tell if Ouma was serious or not, he queried.

“Dare! Let’s start this game with a bang!”

So he had chosen dare, huh? He looked down to think. It wasn’t surprising that Ouma had chosen that, he seemed a bit averse to honesty. But what should he ask?

His mind went back to the few time he’d played the hellish game with Kaede and her more outgoing friends. Maybe he should dare him to do something with Harukawa, since she was the only one there…

“If you’re thinking about making me kiss Maki you can forget it right now, we’re both gay” Ouma replied, quick and simple, and Shuuichi felt his heart jump at the sudden sound “Sorry, Saihara-chan! I draw the line at that. Not everyone’s straight like you, y’see?”

Shuuichi was taken aback by his words for a moment, half because Ouma seemed to think he was straight, and half because he knew exactly what he had thought.

“I-I wasn’t gonna make you do that” He lied “And, uh, I’m bi actually” He muttered, feeling much more nervous about saying that than he should.

“Oh?” Ouma raised his eyebrows and Shuuichi could feel his stare piercing _right through_ him, intense enough to make him shiver and stiffen up “Phew, that’s good. I dunno what I’d do if there was some straightie in my apocalypse survivor group.”

And suddenly the intensity of his gaze was completely gone. Shuuichi sighed in…relief? He couldn’t quite tell what he was feeling. Actually, that entire moment had been super confusing to him — Why did Ouma just stare at him like that?

It was like that at each second that passed, Shuuichi understood him less.

“Well, since Saihara is such a slowpoke, I’m gonna turn the tables on him” Ouma announced with a smirk “So, Saihara-chan, truth or dare?”

“Wait, you can’t just do that!” He stammered “The game doesn’t work this wa—”

“It’s _my_ game and _I_ get to choose the rules!” Ouma snapped, his expression twisting into one of childish anger, but then quickly going back to a relaxed smile “Truth or dare?” He scooted closer and leaned in to him a bit.

Shuuichi was quickly getting dizzy again…

There was no way he was getting out of this, was it?

“…t-truth, I guess”

“Wow, you’re so obedient! That’s kinda gross” He chuckled. Shuuichi ignored it, too distracted by the weird dizziness he felt and the warmth of embarrassment on his face “Let me think…ah, I’ve got a good one! Have you ever kissed anyone?”

Hold on, that was a pretty standard truth or dare question. Something like this coming from Ouma is…rather unsettling. Did he have any second intentions asking this? There was no way he’d just ask something so simple.

“Hey, I know you’re slow, but that’s a pretty easy question, just say yes or no!” Ouma poked him.

“S-Sorry, I got distracted!” He squeaked “But uh, yeah, I have.”

“Oh, that’s surprising” The purple-haired boy smirked “And here I was thinking that Saihara-chan was completely pure and innocent. Guess I’m wrong” He chuckled and why did his voice sound so _dark?_

Shuuichi answered by smiling awkwardly, unable to much more because the atmosphere was just really weird right now. Ouma seemed to be staring at him with a strange smirk on his lips and oh god, they were making eye contact. But somehow Shuuichi couldn’t pull away.

“Hey, you can ask me a question right now” He said, voice sounding soft, and Shuuichi gulped, feeling like he wouldn’t be able to speak even if he tried to. Somehow it was like the foreign atmosphere was affecting how he thought.

He couldn’t even point out that the game didn’t work that way, or that Harukawa was still here watching their strange flirting, or that Ouma’s hand was resting on his shoulder now, or—

“Oh my god, you two are the worst. If you’re gonna make out at least tell me to fuck off first” Harukawa’s voice echoed, and the imaginary bubble around Shuuichi and Ouma popped. Coming back to reality, he feels his face burn, and pushes the smaller boy away, just now realizing how close he was.

“I-It’s not like that!” Shuuichi squeaked, and Ouma giggled “We weren’t gonna do anything!”

“Of course we wouldn’t” Ouma shrugged, and wow that was kind of harsh. But Shuuichi supposed he was right. There was no way they were gonna do anything…like that “Saihara-chan is gross, I wouldn’t kiss him even if he begged me to!”

Harukawa shook her head and stood up “You two really are disgusting. Keep playing if you want to, I’m out” She raised her arms, stretching “I’ll just sleep already. If you’re planning on doing anything just do it far away from me, please.”

Ouma giggled like that was the funniest joke he’d ever heard, while Shuuichi just tried not to combust on the spot.


	6. darkness time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: i wrote all of this in comic sans

**DAY 25, 1 AM.**

And very unsurprisingly, Shuuichi couldn’t sleep.

After Harukawa declared she wouldn’t take part in the game anymore, it was pretty much over. Ouma kept on laughing until he stopped and decided that he wanted to take a walk alone, driving himself away from the group.

Harukawa didn’t seem to mind, and just got comfortable on the car’s driver seat, quickly falling asleep with her face lightly pressed against the window. Shuuichi found it odd that she decided to sleep there when she had the option to choose the more spacious back seat, but he didn’t want to mention it. She looked like she needed that rest, anyway.

Shuuichi didn’t even try to sleep, though. He knew he wouldn’t be able to, considering how his head was still spinning a bit with all the stuff that happened on the past days that he’s been with Ouma and Harukawa. So he decided to take some time to just think, sitting on the ground with his back against the car.

He focused on the image of the ghost town. Now that he’d been there for so long, and he had other people around him, it looked more peaceful instead of creepy. It made him feel an emotion that he couldn’t even name, but he knew it was something akin to calmness, but maybe hopelessness at the same time?

It was pretty bittersweet — Then again, that word could be used to describe how things had been now that he found Ouma and Harukawa. They were strange, mysterious, but fun to watch and be with, despite all the awkwardness.

But they were also…all Shuuichi had. Theoretically, he could leave them at any moment, but if he did, he’d have nothing left. They weren’t exactly friends, just a couple of strangers who grouped up because it would benefit them in that strange situation. They only seemed like friends because said situation wasn’t exactly harmful, so they were allowed to keep a lighthearted atmosphere in their group and joke around as they pleased.

Yeah, that was it. They didn’t have to worry about anything, so they were just…together because they all had survived the apocalypse. The weirdly quiet and peaceful apocalypse.

Shuuichi tapped his chin as he thought. Could he even call it that? He supposed there were no better names for the phenomena, but calling it apocalypse felt…inappropriate.

He decided to just brush it off though. It wasn’t like the name mattered much anyway.

He set his eyes on the few drops of stars on the sky, barely seen due to the pollution, and found himself wondering how things would be a long time from now.

Nature would probably take back its place, and everything would be covered in overgrowth. He knew that buildings would eventually crumble, and that animals would find their ways into the urban area. Or at least his online research told him that.

Speaking of research, he thought he should walk around and take a look at things again, maybe. His eyes ran to a bag that Harukawa had left on the backseat of the car, and knowing there was a spare flashlight there, he took it, and got up.

Feeling a little bad for leaving Harukawa there, but also not worrying about her since she seemed like she could easily snap anything she wanted to like a twig, Shuuichi left their improvised camp.

He aimed the flashlight forwards, and walked away, without any objective in mind. He just wanted to look around again, maybe find something that could help him _understand_ things.

Because even if it was just in the background of his thoughts, doubt still filled up his mind when he wasn’t being distracted by Ouma’s obnoxiousness or occupying himself with scavenging. He just wanted to know, why did all of this happen…?

Shuuichi bit his lip. If he could only find a single clue, he’d be less bothered. Then again, maybe he just couldn’t find them because he wasn’t a very good detective—

He inhaled, about to exhale through a defeated sigh, but then he heard _something._

Some kind of weird plant ruffling noises, the sound of maybe some bushes scraping against each other. Without even thinking, Shuuichi pointed the flashlight in the sound’s direction, revealing that it indeed came from a bush, a rather tall one near the hospital building.

The ruffling noise echoed again, this time louder, and he could see the bushes move.

Something was there.

It was likely just some animal, but there was no way to be sure. It could very well be someone else, hiding behind the lea—

_“BOO!”_

And then Shuuichi yelped, letting out one of the most embarrassing, high-pitched sounds he ever had, stumbling like an idiot and falling on his ass right on the hard concrete.

It took the few seconds of his outburst to notice that Ouma had revealed himself, that the purple-haired bastard was the one hiding behind the bushes and ruffling them to lure Shuuichi just so he could scare him.

“Wow, calm down, Saihara-chan! It’s just me!” He giggled brightly “Did my cute little face scare you too much?”

“D-Don’t…ever…do this again” Shuuichi almost wheezed, still breathing erratically. Ouma’s grin seemed to drop a bit at that.

“Sorry, I won’t” He said through gigled, somehow sounding a little bit more serious, and then reached out “Need help to get up?”

Shuuichi stared at his hand for a brief moment, but took it, and with the help of Ouma’s (surprisingly strong) pull he was back on his feet in no time.

“Thank you” He muttered “Um…were you going back to our camp?”

He smiled “Pretty much, yeah! I got bored of walking around, and was about to come back to our lovely home to get some shut eye. But since Saihara’s still awake, how about we go on a little walk?”

The wannabe detective blinked. Ouma…wanted to go on a walk with him? That was alright, and really not suspicious or anything but…it made him feel sort of strange. Like he should expect something.

Ouma _was_ full of surprises, after all.

“Okay…let’s go on a walk then” He smiled as politely as he could, and soon he and the other were stepping farther into the darkness together, side by side.

Ouma had chuckled contently, and started skipping alongside Shuuichi.

“Sooo” He started, voice all singsong-y “What brings you outside this late, Mr. Saihara?”

For some reason, he couldn’t help but smile a bit at his tone “I just thought I should look around one more time. I’ve been…thinking about the cause of the disappearances a lot lately”

Ouma stopped skipping and started just walking instead “That’s so boring, though!”

“It’s okay” He mumbled, laughing awkwardly and thinking of how to keep the conversation going “Um, what were you doing before you saw me?”

“I was just looking for rats!”

…Shuuichi wasn’t sure how to answer that. He just looked at Ouma’s smile blankly.

He had a feeling he’d said that just because he didn’t want to answer truthfully—

“You look like you don’t believe me” He pointed out with a grin “You have this weird… _detective-ish_ look on your face. Actually, are you a detective? I have a feeling you are”

If he was speechless before, he was even more speechless now.

“I. Um.” _Get your shit together, Shuuichi. Just answer his question_ “Not really. I’m — was — just a high schooler. But I did want to become a detective”

“Ohh, so I was right!” Ouma clenched his fists excitedly, holding them in front of his chest “Maybe _I_ should be the detective instead”

Shuuichi chuckled a little, and then finally thought of a question to ask “Ah, by the way, are you in high school too?”

And just when he thought he was doing okay at the whole socializing thing,

“Why do you think I’m a high schooler? Is it because I’m short?”

Shuuichi felt his face heat up “N-No, I just, ah…”

“It’s okay! I can’t blame you for thinking I’m younger” Ouma giggled “I’m in college actually!”

“Ah, r-really?” Eager to change the subject, Shuuichi searched for questions to ask, hoping he didn’t sound too nosy “What grade are you in?”

Ouma just smirked “Oh, are you interrogating me now? I shoulda known a detective would wanna do that. But since you insist, I’ll tell you. The truth is, I’m actually getting my third master’s degree!”

Shuuichi blinked. That…had to be a lie.

“That’s a lie!” Ouma announced among giggles and playful smile “But judging by the look in your face, you already knew that”

He just smiled all too awkwardly. Ouma was…pretty good at reading people, wasn’t he? It was almost scary…

“Okay, now to be honest, I’m actually a freshman” He revealed “Don’t bother asking me for my major, though, cause I won’t tell you! You’ll have to find out for yourself”

“T-That’s okay” Shuuichi kept his awkward smile, not sure of what else to say. His head was still spinning a bit because of how easily Ouma took over the conversation, but he felt somewhat glad that he was actually talking normally to him, and answering his questions.

It was pretty much the first time that happened. And now, he felt like he had actually caught a glimpse of Ouma’s personality.

“When I was talking about looking for rats, I wasn’t entirely lying, though. I do like rats” He chattered

“Ah, I like them too” Shuuichi looked up with a smile “I had one when I was younger”

“You have good taste” Ouma praised, a smirk still dancing on his lips.

“Thank you…”

He mumbled, tugging at the brim of the hat he wore. Just like that, the conversation was pretty much over. He glanced at the boy by his side a couple times, still sort of expecting him to say something.

But he didn’t. Ouma just kept quiet, seemingly lost on his own thoughts. It was…kind of a shame. Shuuichi couldn’t shake off the feeling that he wanted to keep having that honest, lighthearted conversation with Ouma.

“Damn, I’m tired” The man himself spoke up, yawning “It’s probably really late too. Don’t you think so, Saihara-chan?”

“I guess” He replied “Do you want to go back?”

“Yeah. If I don’t get some sleep soon I’ll probably pass out, and you’ll have to carry me back.”

Shuuichi nodded, and turned to his back, ready to make his way to the improvised camp. Ouma followed him right behind, walking a little slower than before, maybe because he was actually tired.

Silently, they walked back.

 

**DAY 25, 7 AM.**

Morning came faster than Shuuichi expected. Somehow, after taking his walk with Ouma, his anxious thoughts had pretty much calmed down for the night.

Still, that didn’t mean he had slept well. But that was fine, he was pretty used to being sleep deprived anyway. He just hoped Harukawa and Ouma didn’t notice how bad he probably looked.

…but of course, Harukawa’s stare while they had breakfast served as enough proof for him to know they _had_ noticed it.

“You look tired” She pointed out after she finished munching on some cookies “Did you even sleep?”

“I did, just not a lot” He replied, not taking his eyes off his food. She seemed to just nod in acknowledgement.

“My bad!” Ouma butted in, smirking “I didn’t let Saihara-chan sleep until it was very, very late” His voice went soft, in a mocking sultry tone, and Shuuichi choked on his orange juice.

Harukawa stared at the two of them. The look on her crimson eyes was unreadable, but he could tell it was a mix of secondhand embarrassment, disbelief, and maybe amusement. Maybe.

She wasn’t very expressive, so it wasn’t like Shuuichi could tell what she was thinking—

“Okay” She uttered, and moved on to another subject “You two shouldn’t sleep late, though. You’ll just end up being tired all day”

Shuuichi blinked. Was she…concerned about them? That was—

“And I can’t really deal with you two being tired and lazy, since we really should move on to another town” She added, and took a bite off her bread. Oh, okay. So it was because of _that._

“Speaking of which,” Ouma spoke up “Should we bring Saihara with us when we get out of here?”

“It would make sense” Harukawa shrugged “I honestly don’t care. We have been camping together for a couple days, but if he wants to come back to his place, he’s free to do so.”

“I guess” Ouma tapped his chin “But hasn’t he seen too much of us to come back? I’d say Saihara-chan must either come with us or die” He grinned.

Shuuichi blinked. They…looked like they had forgotten he was there, and just started conversing on their own. He knew enough about Ouma and Harukawa to tell that they were still acutely aware of him, though, and were probably just ignoring him.

“But I don’t know if he _has_ the right profile to be part of our organization” Ouma said, raising his hand to look at his fingernails “Saihara-chan is too much of a softie, isn’t he?”

“Um” Shuuichi decided to finally speak up “You realize I’m still here, don’t you?”

“Yup!” He replied brightly, and Harukawa just messed with a strand of hair on her hands “Anyways, me and Maki don’t know if you should come with us or not, so we’re giving you the special benefit of choosing it! What do you say, Mr. Saihara?”

Shuuichi blinked. They couldn’t decide, so Ouma decided to let him choose? He was probably just messing with him, and intended on asking him since the beginning…

Still, what should he say? He might have gotten a little too attached to the duo, which wasn’t very good, considering he didn’t knew much about them, but he had a feeling they were harmless, as intimidating as they could be…

He looked down, cupping his chin. He didn’t exactly have much else to do besides following them around, right? If he went back home he’d just be alone for the rest of his days, or until he found other people…

Knowing that, his choice became pretty easy.

“If it’s okay with you two…” Shuuichi mumbled, sort of wincing at how weak his voice sounded at the moment. He had to work on that “I don’t mind tagging along”

Ouma’s eyes flashed strangely as he narrowed them.

“So you agree to be a part of our secret evil organization?” He smirked “Be careful, Saihara, you can’t go back if you say yes”

“He’s just messing with you” Harukawa intervened, pushing Ouma to the side “If you wanna go home it’s fine, we just won’t take you back to your place”

“T-That’s okay with me” Shuuichi did his best polite smile, still unnerved by Ouma’s joke “When are we leaving, though?”

“Probably later today. Or tomorrow morning, it doesn’t really matter” Harukawa twisted a lock of hair on her fingers “We should stop by your house so you can gather your stuff, though. Just don’t get too much or your backpack will be too heavy”

“Alright” He nodded with a small smile “I’m okay with going there this afternoon, and I don’t really have a lot of things I want to take, anyway”

“It’s decided then!” Ouma clapped his hands together, grinning from ear to ear with sparkly eyes “You’re one of us now, Saihara-chan!”

**Author's Note:**

> yell at me on tumblr @truthbulletz  
> pls comment if you can! id love to hear what you think abt my story ^___^


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